Chassidic Glossary - Or Ein Sof #4 אור אין סוף, Rabbi Yossi Paltiel, 5782

[Music] this is our fourth segment [Music] on eating tough ungodliness [Music] and in the last couple of segments i have allowed myself to use the discussion on nadine sof not to strictly explain the mysticism and the philosophy of alien soft [Music] but to explain the significance and the meaning and the value and the relevance of eddie saf to our lives as jews and the servants of hashem to our terror mitzvah [Music] in the previous segment i used this circumstance to talk about liatro tuberculosis [Music] i want to continue in this segment with other examples where the fact that in kabbalah there's a concept of godliness altogether changes the significance and the meaning of our practice of tater mitzvas and that has to do with the names of hashem with the divine names we all know that god has more than one name hashem has seven names kabbalistically ten names and these are all proper names names that are specific to hashem to god because there are innumerable words that are allusions to god but they're not allusions to god in a very specific way like the word ani or anoiki or atta or who and therefore they're halachically not in the category of shame chain in the hawker they're not in the category of words in the tanakh or in the secretary they should not allow a race because although they may mean maybe a reference to him in a particular context but because they're not actually his names you can erase them and you can rewrite them and so on of course the million dollar question is why does god have so many names what's wrong with having only one name [Music] and in typical jewish fashion the answer to the question of why god has so many names is how could god have a single name he should really be nameless and of course the reason why god should be nameless is because a name is a description the name of the title name defines describes and defines the holy book of teachers and the alternative makes a very big deal out of it in the tanya and the rebbe has made a big big big big big big big deal out of this in all of his title all of his nova's and all of his letters the name of any item of anything in los angeles is the energy is the vibrancy is the vitality is the definition of each creation like the letter rings from the madrish and dictated them as it that admiration was smart of the malacca because they were able to identify the names of the animals based on the characteristics that he saw and the trader says was right all the names he gave to the various different animals turned out to be true because his was so cute he could look at a physical animal and know the hebrew letters that sustain it because the names of each creation are not just means by which we identify them they actually are the vibrancy they're the life of that particular creation which leads us to the question how can i have a name a name has to be a definition how do you define a being that by definition doesn't have any definition and of course the measures answers this question by saying that the names of hashem don't reflect him the names of hashem reflect him as he's relating to the world through a particular action when he's in he's called hawaii when he's ishmael he's called surveys and so on the names of hashem are not defining him per se the names of hashem are defining him in his relationship with the creation now the shame havaya utkavovke may be a little bit different than the other names as far as this is concerned it's called the shema attempt but we're not going into the particular names at the moment we're going to do that when we get to each one of these names blinded in this glossary assuming that we uh have some on and everything is dependent on zyata deshmaya and sayata is kain so what does it mean what does it mean that the names of hashem are defining an action [Music] and again a huge difference emerges between how you understand this in philosophy and how you understand this in kabbalah in philosophy means all the names of hashem references to him [Music] but when he does an action in the world which we call in our culture a nifa the effect that affects the world that looks like war we call himself when he does an action of the world which looks like we call him and so on everything that happens in the world is done directly by god and the various names are not defining [Music] him very specifically they're defining [Music] the evidence of him the clue when you see in the world a phenomena which looks like supernova when you see in the world which looks like soprano intensity you call them kim when you see in the world with what looks like war you call them sways and so on so in philosophy the names of hashem are all referring to him based on the effect that you see in the world but in kabbalah there's something called as fetus as the citizen's godliness as this fear is as godly light as the series is godliness which is our topic and the essence fetus exists before he acts before hashem does compassion he has compassion the way in safe is in before hashem does exactly toot he has exactitude the way ain't safe is in buddha and before hashem engages what we would call war there already is the notion of victory in the in the divine which is the way godliness where the course is manifest in me which is called and so on so the names of hashem don't only define our observation of his actions they actually defined his medias to actually define that in godliness not in god but in godliness there are tense fetus there are ten medias and the names of hashem are references defined the godliness of the ten spheres and the ten meters so in kabbalah when you speak about the names of hashem and you understand that the names of hashem are defining various actions that he does in relationship with the world the name of god almighty is not only in relationship to what we observe which is called the nifa the name of god almighty is also defining the the idea that in in in the realms of godliness not the realms of god there's no realms of god right in the in the levels of the divine and nazilus the various medes have those names even if they're not engaging with the world just by themselves the medias and the spheres of lacus have godliness inside them the goddess inside the various medias has these different names so the names of hashem are not only relating to what reaches us from him the names of the shama relating to how his godliness is manifest in the vessels of atheilus [Music] forgive me i want to repeat this a second time [Music] i just want to repeat this again in short words in philosophy you can only attribute the names of al-qaeda's paraguay to the nipple to the effect of these various my days and in kabbalah you can attribute the names of hashem to the pu'ula that means to the character trait itself the toriyam themselves which is a reference to the vessels of vatsilas that have the divine light inside of themselves the godliness inside of themselves the godliness of the vessels the godliness inside the vessels these are the names of akades barak which leads me to another point which is discussed in the midst and i might as well say this here that the first fifteen or sixteen product of the shaish mitsutfila are truly fundamental in understanding the hash of kabbalah about alakuza about godliness in general by the names of asham in specific and davening more particularly and i'm just advertising this that rabbi jacob emmanuel [Music] who was mandated by the rabbit to translate the you get a sakurai dish alternate letters and then he wrote a series of essays to overview concepts in kabbalah so that he wouldn't have to repeat himself in his notes each time he wrote an essay [Music] and then that ever named that book mystical concepts never gave it the name and had it printed with the sensino edition of the tanya the big tanya that we all use in english in that book the ideas that i'm sharing here are found rather comprehensively and it's from what i my humble opinion to a great extent the translation of the beginning of the cherishments and that is the following question that there is a great debate this debate exists amongst mystics themselves forget about mystics and philosophers amongst mystics themselves the debate exists and the debate revolves around two statements both found in ghazal one statement is why do jewish people scream and their prayers are ignored and the answer is because they don't know the kavanah the meditations of the divine names and opposite that you have the statement that says i wish to daven to the mind of the child i don't want to be mystical i don't want to speak to god in his various different names that correspond to the godliness of the various different fetus i want to have a relationship with god himself or to say this second idea in a much more sophisticated way and this is a little bit uh controversial but for today and for now it's fine it's you want to talk directly to god not to talk to the media [Music] that if a person dies and he wants his prayers to be answered he needs to know the cavanas the meditations of the names of hashem and which prayer [Music] should relate to which name of hashem based on the particular media that the person is trying to access in alakus is a true concept in kabbalah that knowing like it's good to know the pathways to the heavens and then of course the rest of us doesn't matter that it's most much to have a sensitivity a skill in doing a jew of favor but there is a significant idea in kabbalah to know the meanings of the different names of akadesh barachu and to know the cavanes no the meditations and to know which name of hashem you're going to use based on the kind of prayer that you're asking not forsholin that you're talking to the medias of the fetus not god forbid that there's many gods but because this is the channel this name is where godliness is manifest in this medo and when you need hashem which is connected to a particular media you have to have the right kavanaugh you have to know the shameless which names of hashem are connected to which medicines fetus the other opinion held that that may be true that there's advantage in knowing the names of hashem and what they mean and so on and so forth but i want to speak to god as a child this idea is very profound and very true and discussed that hasidah speaks of course out of both sides of its mouth qasidis wants both of these things and argues that there's a place for both is even both at the same time but this is certainly true that the meanings of prayer in general and the meaning of the names of hashem in particular [Music] the way kabbalah enriches them versus how these names are understood without kabbalah is day and night it can't even compare the different names of hashem the way kabbalah explains they are accused of fetus it's godliness it's not god it's godliness but godliness is vagus goddess has no identity other than that is expression of hashem and the names of velukus the names represent the way the godliness comes to the world and in kabbalah knowing the cavanes knowing the meditations and what names of hashem to use and all the rest is a very meaningful and rich part of awareness hashem and the idea of nikra that the different names of hashem correspond the different medes is not simply the way we see what hashem gives the world but it's actually the way godliness is manifest first in the higher worlds and then from the higher world how it's manifest in this world [Music] in concluding this segment i want to just say two things number one it's interesting to note that the democratic says something very radical that of um of all people said not to study kabbalah because he's afraid that liaidu la hafshitadvar megash bisa the conversation we just had about knowing the names of god and that the names of god are connected to godliness and their manifest and defense fetus creates a very very complicated some people call sophisticated other people called complicated they're both true involvement with god and godliness and there's always the fear that if you understand these things incorrectly it's literally borderline of a desire making divisions in the place where unity is the most important thing in the world so that have actually said don't do it now people involved in premise wonder washington so i don't think this question needs an answer this question needs simply to be this the idea needs to be pointed out when we talk about the names of hashem and the idea that the names of hashem are connected to the media said this fetus it's very important to appreciate that it should be misconstrued in any way shape or form as in this lack of unity and so much of what hasidis does is to try and reconcile the idea of tayarim of sheamus and how at the same time it's all ain't nevada it's all one and the second thing i want to mention and this i already touched on before i'm just repeating it again that does say that the knowing the meditation to the divine names is what we're leading to godliness as it's in the in silas when a person is able to raise himself higher than that at moments of true moments of mercedes nephesh extreme moments then there is the idea of a level we relate directly to god that we don't relate to godliness as it's connected to the names this is a much much higher indian to me the prototype of this kind of a relationship is the story of hana and her form of prayer um as it's explained in the rebel but this requires a person to be in a very special frame of mind where they relate to godliness to god directly [Music] and when a person is that frame of mind then they don't need the names of al-qaeda's barcodes they don't read the cavanes the meditations of the name of al-qaeda's barracuda to have a relationship with anhai [Music]